Energy audit: do it with NF EN 16247 version 2022
For the past ten years, the European Union has required certain companies to conduct an energy audit every four years. The voluntary standards of the NF EN 16247 family, which provide the methodology for conducting this exercise, have just been updated. This is a godsend at a time when the energy crisis is forcing everyone to tighten their belts! Here is a breakdown of the new features.
Energy efficiency
If you work for a company with more than 250 employees, or a company with annual revenue exceeding €50 million and a balance sheet total of more than €43 million, you’re probably used to it by now: every four years, the law requires you to conduct an energy audit. The goal is to identify opportunities for energy savings and the steps you can take to implement them cost-effectively. For those who met the first deadline of December 5, 2015—set by the law transposing the 2012 European directive that mandates this requirement—this will be the third time: 2015, 2019, and thus 2023.
In each case, the audit must be conducted by a duly qualified auditor, who carries out the process in accordance with a standardized methodology. In this case, the methodology described in the NF EN 16247 standards—a set of standards published between 2012 and 2015, with sections covering general requirements, buildings, processes, transportation, and auditor competencies, respectively. This makes the energy audit the first building block of a successful energy-saving initiative, as we explain in this downloadable study.
NF EN 16247: From Energy Efficiency to Energy Performance
Today, AFNOR is publishing an updated version of these standards.
The revision had three objectives: to incorporate feedback from ten years of audits in Europe, to standardize the various sections, and to align the terminology of audit standards with that of management standards
Gaëtan CollinHead of the Greenbirdie Design Office
To illustrate the shift in terminology, he gives this example: “The NF EN 16247 standards referred to energy efficiency, a concept that implies a ratio, whereas the ISO 50001 standard on energy management systems refers to energy performance, a concept that implies targets to be achieved. We have aligned ourselves with ‘performance’. This has implications for the calculation of significant energy uses as defined by the EN 16247 standard.” Feedback from audits conducted in Europe among regulated companies—other than those holding ISO 50001 certification, which are exempt—has, for example, led to a reworking of the concept of sampling. “Only Part 2 of the standard, specific to buildings, allowed for the use of sampling to measure consumption. From now on, this will also be possible for processes, covered in Part 3 ( NF EN 16247-3 ). "This will be a huge advantage for companies with many identical sites, such as cell towers, for example," adds Gaëtan Collin.
A mandatory requirement for companies consuming between 10 and 100 TJ per year
Another new feature: the standard now introduces the concept of the level of detail required for audits, defining three levels: basic audits, audits in which significant energy consumption must be measured (rather than estimated), and audits in which recommendations for action must be based on cost estimates—rather than on estimates. Encouraging audits based on actual consumption, the revised standard introduces the requirement to define a measurement plan for the purposes of the energy audit and cites the August 2019 NF EN 17267 standard as a reference in this regard. The new version of the audit will recommend actions designed to reduce energy consumption, as is already the case, but also actions designed to increase the use of renewable energy or to generate energy from renewable sources.
In 2023, your next energy audit will therefore be conducted in accordance with these new rules. The regulations will be updated to establish this methodology as the new standard. They will also be updated to define the new scope of entities subject to the requirements. Indeed, the draft revised European directive stipulates that affected companies will be selected not based on size or financial capacity, but on energy consumption. Thus, all companies with an annual energy consumption of between 10 and 100 terajoules over a three-year period will be subject to the energy audit. Holding an ISO 50001 certificate will still provide an exemption, but will become mandatory for companies exceeding 100 TJ/year.
